Pages

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Trip report - birding in Dehradun: 28 Jan 2017

I had planned a trip to Dighal - a place on my birding hit list in Haryana where some beautiful sightings of migratory birds was pouring in every single day. The plan was sealed and in place. The plan was - start very early morning like at 3 in morning or so - reach and bird in Dighal for the day and return back the same day. The plan was great and I was joined by three other bird watchers - a couple plus one. Two days before the day I was given news by my father that there was a likely hood of protest by Jats regarding some stupid issue of reservations. The last time over the Jat agitation had turned very ugly so I was not comfortable with the plan so I rang up called off the visit. As I hung up the phone I sat by my computer and starting searching for a place - within a radius of 3 hours travel that could be the birding destination. Dehradun immediately sprung up - the capital of Uttrakhand is a great place for birding. I sat down on eBird and starting researching the places to visit. Immediately three places sprung up based on the sightings logged by fellow birders - FRI (Forest Research Institute), Wildlife Institute of India and Asan Barrage.

These birds easily qualified themselves as my bird of the day... Blue-bearded Bee-eaters

When I declared the plan to the members - the couple had finalised their own trip and opted out. Mohit decided to remain my partner in crime. As I was researching my visit on various online forum I came across name of one more birder who had birded in Dehradun earlier and he too jumped on board and joined us.

The drive was around 4 hours one way so we decided to go early and be at the first spot at sunrise. The trip did not really start well. The sunrise was 0715 so we planned leaving Chandigarh at 0400. Under protest of one of the team members the time was postponed to 0430. Dot at 0420 the other two members were at home and ready to go. Well so far so good. As we hit the road - it took us a few seconds to realise that the fog was thick and a potential hazard. The fog took the toll and speed was anywhere between 25 km per hour to 45. Well, we reached the FRI (Forest Research Institute of India) at about 0815, an hour later than the intended time. This is the time when the second problem hit us - FRI gates open at 0900. That was another half an hour plus haggling at the gates. We were allowed inside only for walk and without cameras. So our first checklist of the day started and we took a stroll inside the gate - parking the car at the gates and cameras in the car. The birds were all around us and we were excited and disappointed at the same time - wasting essential birding time.

Finally, it was nine and we drove to the Botanical Gardens - our first pit stop. We spent almost one and a half hours there. The birding was great - the first sightings were three varieties of Thrushes. So three of us concentrated on one each and all of us missed the other two. Tickell's, a scally thrush (ID yet to be confirmed) and Black-throated Thrush. After this there was not stopping - one after other the birds gave us good sightings. The troubling part was that every tom, dick and harry was asking us if we had permission to carry camera etc and that WAS troubling. Though we managed - it was not a great way to be birding. Every passing minute convinced us that the city chosen for birding was great.

The second spot was the famed Bamboo plantations. Unfortunately, we were told that they were out of bounds and we decided that it might not be worth the trouble to sneak inside from a broken gate we knew existed.

Next, we decided to check out the last spot the Nature trail. It is located North of the FRI - a track that goes to a village that has got landlocked between the FRI on one side and Tons River on the other side. The place was heaven for birding and I logged my first 'Lifer' of the visit - Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. The walk turned out to be not more than 400 to 500 yards at the most but the birds and bird sounds were heavenly. As we turned back I saw two birds sitting on a branch just ahead and I was jumping up and down with joy - almost 2 years of running after Blue-beared Bee-eaters to get some respectable shots - there they were sitting barely 15 feet away. What a gala time we had observing and clicking pictures of the beautiful and one of the biggest of bee-eaters in the world. We stopped at this spot for almost 20-25 minutes - that would seem an unfair amount of time considering we were here only for a day and had another two places to cover before setting course back. After finishing this we decided to come out of the trail and back to where we had parked our car and have a quick bite as hunger pangs were getting better of us.

As we opened up the snacks and tea and coffee flasks - there were another half a dozen birds that caught our attention and we ended up drinking tea and coffee like cold water and were chasing birds yet again. All in all we were there for three and half an hour roughly and logged 42 species (excluding one yet to be identified flycatcher and a thrush)

Next spot was Wildlife Institute of India Campus. Rajive Das made a call and quick enquiry as to how we could enter the place. Luckily one of his contacts tied up our entering the premises. All this happened as we drove to the campus - about 45 min drive from FRI. There is a small Nature Trail there around a lake and we took that trail. The place was another birding paradise and in just about an hour and 15 min we logged 26 species of birds with great sightings of Velvet-fronted Nuthatch yet again, Whistlers Warbler and Mallards.

The time was clicking and we decided to quickly head towards Asan Barrage near Ponta Sahib. As we reached Asan Barrage - Rajive was telling us that one Palla's Fish Eagle has been spotted and wished that we get a sighting. The wish was granted as one of the first sightings we got as we reached the spot was the Fish Eagle flying overhead. There was no stopping now - We were desperately trying to identify the waterfowl and do a count to log them. Some groups were just too far away to count or identify but we did the best we could. From there we went inside the small nature track and after paying up the tickets and driving just a hundred yards we decided that it was not worth the effort - turned back to a new spot back to the banks of the Barrage to see waterfowls.

We parked the car at a spot we thought was the best and walked along the barrage. The sightings were great and in about one and half an hour there we logged 39 species. All the maps etc are duly annotated and attached later.

Like always the lists are at the end of the write-up.

Route passes through the Assan Barrage - however, it was visited later on the way back

Map of FRI and places visited/planned

Wildlife Institute of India, the trail for birding as marked

Asan Barrage and birding there...

Long-tailed Minivet (male) (Pericrocotus ethologus)

One of the three Thrush seen at Botanical Garden - Black-throated Thrush (Turdus atrogularis)

Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher (Culicicapa ceylonensis)

Lifer - Velvet-fronted Nuthatch (Sitta frontalis)

A lifer deserves more coverage - no?

This bird ofcourse will get more realestate in the blog for the fact that I declared it the bird of the day...

the gathering though seems good - but I have seen better fowl counts years back

Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus)

Northern Shoveller (Anas clypeata)

Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

Plum-headed Parakeet (Psittaculla cyanocephala)

Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca)

Great Crested Grebe the bird on the left (Podicepus cristatus)

For planning a trip please do keep in mind that the FRI opens for visitors at 0900 hours and you have to have permission to carry cameras - cater for it a day before of go in time to get the permissions. There is also tickets for entry and some nominal charges for carrying camera inside FRI. We had a person who guided us to get inside the Wildlife Institute of India - it may not be as simple as we got is so please go to the website and contact someone before heading there.

If you like the blog please follow on -
Google plus: +S S Cheema
Instagram: s_s_cheema

Could not help but post this gif to show the state of our birder gang on way to Dehradun

A day well spent. you got really beautiful shots of BB Bee-eaters....they dont give shots so easily. Its a pity that FRI doesn't allow birders to get inside the campus before 9 am. When i was there all my birder friends didn't face any problem.

About Me

Retired from Army after 22 years of service. Now pursuing my loves - photography, wildlife (birding in particular) and traveling...I have jumped from Canon to Nikon. (Earlier I had Canon 7D mark ii along with 100-400mm mark ii lens)